


Shift

by misbehavingvigilante



Series: Tales Inspired by the Discord Year 1 [18]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Medieval, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-11 18:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19932529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: The request to assassinate a King of all people wasn’t a surprise. He had picked off royalty before never someone with an entire country to their name before.





	Shift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hazeldrops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazeldrops/gifts).



> I wrote this a while ago but I never posted. I still have some gift fics to get out so hopefully I can do in a prompt matter. Thank you Hazel for providing the original prompt and I hope you enjoy this too!
> 
> Please note while the fic itself glossed over past sex work which while consensual was informed by the need to survive. So while it's rather vague, please know that in advance in case that's a trigger/squick for you. 
> 
> If you think I missed any tags or need to elaborate, let me know. Please enjoy~!

There were many ways Tony had saw his life going once before. A life of excess and ease, no doubt, but a life nonetheless but then his parents had been murdered. The man behind it had been his uncle despite not a drop of blood between them whatsoever, Obie’s mistake had been letting him live, had been thinking he would die penniless and orphan but fate had something else in store for him.

To say that Tony fell into the life of the assassin would be apt and yet he was good at it, he knew how to make eyes at people, how to tease and taunt them closer with his body before slipping a knife in between their ribs. Slinking away before anyone could connect it back to him because why would they when he was just a pretty piece of ass? 

Other times, Tony showed of his intelligence, used his mind to dazzle and draw someone into a debate. Let them find confide and comfort in a mind that matched their own, and let them to toast to a companionship that never would be with poisoned drink on their lips.

Needless to say, Tony was versatile, versatile enough to have made Obie disappeared years later without a trace back to his name. Not that anyone remembered the Starks now, not that there was a point in reclaiming it when there was no longer fame and fortune waiting for him.

The request to assassinate a King of all people wasn’t a surprise. He had picked off royalty before never someone with an entire country to their name before.

He had heard of Steve Rogers, they had said he was a kind King in due part to how frail he’d been as a child had showed him how fragile and precious life was. As if people probably hadn’t been waiting for him to die and someone else claim the throne in his death, but he had been the only heir, and he had lived.

Tony wondered if the illness was true, it wouldn’t be the first time, royal was thought of as frail only because someone close, someone trusted had been poisoning them all along.

Either way, he had shortened his list of reasons to decline a job because starving to death wasn’t an appealing option, so he accepted the job even if he wasn’t sure how soon he might get the job done. This could be a long con but the payout would make it worth it.

It’s more difficult than it usually is to get into the castle, for some reason, it appears the King isn’t overly fond of concubines for one. Tony wondered if he was impotent, if the illness had been true and struck down his ability to reproduce. Maybe that’s why the hit had been called to hasten the natural end of a line.

So Tony has to make up a sob story, a little too close to his own life, but it does the trick when the emotions behind it are real. He laments not having a place, having been thrown into a life he had never imagined, and how he didn’t know how to do anything else, and how he doesn’t know what he’ll do if he’s turned away. And true to the rumors, the King is kind and doesn’t deny him, though he does seem ambivalent about the decision. 

The number of concubines he has is small, less than even one full hand but the amenities are luxurious, perhaps because they are so few. With a kingdom that doesn’t seem to have an overreaching problem with poverty as many do, the luxuries seem excessive but perhaps it evens out.

The King doesn’t come to him immediately, other pressing matters Tony is sure and he’s fit to ride out the day taking it in as vacation with fine foods and furs in reach. It’s nice to relax.

But then he is told to prepare and pamper himself since the King will receive him that evening. Tony bathes, he uses what scents appeal to him most because he can’t hazard a guess of what the King might like, he wears the most flattering outfits available which really means more of a lavish, long skirt meant to tantalize with all its details hidden on the inside so that prying hands will reach inside and find nothing blocking their path.

Tony never minded dresses or skirts, he liked how the soft fabrics rested on his skin, like how sometimes they were too tight, when they make it difficult to breathe, and all the different designs there were compared to men’s clothes.

The King is just a man, after all. Tony knows how to deal with men, be it with mind or body.

He isn’t unattractive by any stretch too so Tony wouldn’t have any hardship if allowing himself to be bedded by him. The King is dressed down by the time he appeared to Tony, not in all his regalia that he had been on his throne and without the two shadows at his sides.

“King.” Tony greeted him, his body on display as he lounged against the bed languid and loose because why hide his purpose? “I had heard you asked for me.”

“Steve.”

“Steve.” Tony said easily. Some men like to forget their titles for a night, Tony couldn’t blame them, and the royal life was far more troublesome than the common folk had thought. Tony had learnt that lesson from the edges of nobility, and imagined the troubles only increased with rank.

Steve sat down on the edge of the bed, drawing the distance between them rather well that Tony quirked an eyebrow behind wondering if his advances were welcomed at all, or if this was just a matter of appearances.

Regardless if they conversed or fucked, he had to get close to Steve to kill him so it didn’t bother Tony, though he may have been looking forward to latter more than he had thought.

“You said this was all you knew but isn’t there anything else you would rather do? Anything else you like?”

Tony blinked, the question caught him off guard, and made his body language change from open and welcoming to close and guarded. The change had not gone unnoticed by the sweep of those blue eyes, far too calculating that Tony knew he wasn’t just a figurehead while those at court played at absolute ruler.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable but I don’t want you to do anything that you don’t want to do. It isn’t right of me to take advantage of you.”

“Yet you accepted me.” Tony pointed out.

“Yes because you seem very resigned. I worried what you might do if I had not, if I had no desire to bed you.”

Tony wondered how true that was, sometimes he wasn’t people’s type due to preferences but often he turned heads. He hadn’t missed the barely intake of held breath when Steve had first saw him as if fortifying himself against a sin like desire.

“I wasn’t lying.” Tony repeated, he held fast to the not lie because that was the way you didn’t slip up. “This is my life, and you tell me to find something else?”

“I said, if you want to. It matters what you want to choose.”

“Can I see your shield?”

That took Steve by surprise who blinked open and honest, it would have been the perfect time to strike an attack and yet Tony didn’t take it. “My shield?”

“There are rumors about it, about how it can’t be broken, how it can’t be built again. Makes someone curious to know how that could have been.”

“You were a smith?”

“Something like that.” Tony slipped back into the blacksmith mask from time to time, it was a way to be overlooked as smiths were ordinary and common, but at the same time, a good way to gain intelligence with the needs of what people may have wanted. It helped, he had been taught that before all this, and those brief moments at pretend had probably been as close to happiness as he got without the aid of ale or coin.

“Why don’t you see the forge tomorrow then when it’s light? See if that suits you more.”

“We’ll see how I feel about it in the morning. It is late, Steve, you’ll give me ideas if you stay too long.”

“Right. I wouldn’t want to do that.” Steve stood, and he did cut a fine figure, imposing yet not terrifying, it was easy to see why he would be beloved by his people. “Good night, Tony.”

Tony waved goodbye in silent, waiting long after Steve had retreated to exhale.

Moving up in station could help him kill Steve if he didn’t have an interest in concubines, maybe he’d prefer a smith instead. Steve would not make for an easy target that much Tony knew, so it wouldn’t hurt to take his time.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna chat, I'm on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/thiefoftruth26).


End file.
